As much as I'd love to have a standup arcade console, I just don't have the space for it. I've never liked cocktail models to play for long periods. Even a bartop would need a semi-dedicated space.

I'm thinking of getting one of those Pandora boxes from Amazon. They vary in price between about $200 and $300+. I can then hook the box up to a TV and play with arcade style controls. I have an RPi, but don't like using a gamepad to play arcade games. I know that I could build an arcade control, but that would be almost as much as a Pandora. Plus, my woodworking skills suck.

Has anyone used a Pandora box? Do they provide reasonable emulation of arcade games? I'm mostly interested in stuff from the early to mid '80s. Gyruss is a big favourite - so good emulation of that game (including the music) is a plus for me.

A friend of mine has one in an what was an abandoned HS-5 cabinet, that we restored, put a CRT back in, better speakers, new sticks, buttons, power supply, etc.

I believe if memory serves me, was an Pandora Box 4S+. It has about 815 games on it. Mind you, some are mods/hacks of the fighting games like SF, or KoF series, mods like turbo speed, different colour palettes, or things like that.

The mid 80's games that this one has seems to be emulated pretty well. The focus for them was like yours, on the 80's and 90's stuff, and for them, it's a been a blast. The controls are good, no lag to speak of, and the images on screen are good too. We're using the JAMMA version, with the RGB direct to the monitor. It is nice that you can HDMI direct out from it to a LCD, but I insisted on the CRT look. CRT or bust, lol.

All in all, for them, and the part I played in helping to restore the cab, the Pandora fits their needs just fine. The owner even added a Insteon plug, so they can remote turn on the cabinet via their iPhones..lol. Interesting mix of new and old tech.

Of course, having the real boards is the best, but if you're not all hung up on that, they'll scratch the itch.

While Amazon might sell them, check out Aliexpress. We ordered the JAMMA one, and this time last year just the game board was 50-60bux, then like 20 for shipping but it arrived from (likely China) to Toronto, in a week..